Middle East | The Daily Star

  • ‘Wide-scale’ Israeli strikes kill 11 fighters in Syria

    The Israeli army carried out a “wide-scale” attack against Iranian forces and Syrian army targets in Syria yesterday, killing at least 11 fighters, the Israeli army and a monitoring group said.

  • Iran’s missiles unrivaled in Middle East: Pentagon

    Despite decades of sanctions, Iran has succeeded in developing its missile arsenal, which is larger than that of any other Middle Eastern country including Israel, a Pentagon study said Tuesday.

  • Bangladeshi killed in Libya airstrike

    Five people including a Bangladeshi national are killed in an airstrike at a biscuit factory in Libya’s capital Tripoli.

  • One dead, 6 hurt outside police station

    A suicide bomber blew himself up at a police station in Indonesia yesterday, killing himself and wounding six others including for officers, according to authorities who described the 24-year-old attacker as a “lone wolf”.

  • Kabul car bomb blast kills 7

    At least seven people were killed and ten wounded, including four foreigners, when a suicide bomber in a minivan packed with explosives detonated during Kabul’s morning rush hour yesterday, an interior ministry spokesman said.

  • Man shot dead as Lebanese army disperse protesters

    A man was shot dead south of Beirut after the army opened fire to disperse protesters blocking roads, Lebanese state media said yesterday.

  • Three actors stabbed on stage in Saudi capital

    A Yemeni man stabbed three actors at a performance in the Saudi capital, police said yesterday, in the first such attack since the ultra-conservative kingdom began easing decades-old restrictions on entertainment.

  • Palestinian shot dead in West Bank clashes

    A Palestinian man was shot and killed yesterday during clashes with Israeli forces in the south of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry and medics said.

  • Dozens die in Iraq

    Anti-government protests in Iraq entered their third week yesterday amid fresh bloodshed, but leaders appeared to have closed rank around the country’s embattled premier.

  • Iraq cuts internet again

    A mounting death toll in Baghdad and across southern Iraq coupled with reimposed internet restrictions sparked concerns yesterday that anti-government protests would once again trigger chaos.

  • Mortar fire kills foreign medic in Syria: NGO

    Mortar fire by pro-Ankara forces Sunday killed a Myanmar national working as a cameraman and medic for a non-governmental group in northeast Syria, the group said.

  • Ethiopian PM Abiy defends response to ethnic clashes

    Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Sunday pushed back against portrayals of his government as weak and timid in the face of recent unrest that left more than 80 people dead.

  • Iraq forces fire on protesters after 4 killed in Karbala

    Iraqi security forces yesterday fired live rounds at anti-government protesters in Baghdad, hours after four demonstrators were shot dead outside the Iranian consulate in the holy city of Karbala.

  • Dhaka Airport

    75 more Bangladeshi workers deported from Saudi

    As many as 75 Bangladeshi migrant workers return home from Saudi Arabia amid a deportation spree of undocumented migrant workers by the Gulf country.

  • IS insider gave up Baghdadi for $25m US bounty: report

    US commandos zeroed in on Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s final hideout with the help of an extraordinarily well-placed informant, an IS operative who facilitated the terrorist leader’s movements around Syria and even helped oversee construction work on his Syrian safe house, according to US and Middle East-based officials knowledgeable about the operation.

  • Afghan polls results delayed again

    Preliminary results from Afghanistan’s presidential elections have been delayed for nearly a month, officials announced yesterday, a lengthy postponement likely to stoke political uncertainty and allegations of fraud.

  • Death toll mounts to 63

    Iraqi students joined anti-government protests in Baghdad yesterday, ramping up the street pressure on Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi who also faced a surprise sit-in from parliament’s largest bloc.

  • US ‘betrayed’ Syrian Kurds

    The Kremlin yesterday accused Washington of betraying the Kurds by withdrawing its forces from northern Syria and leaving allies alone in the face of a Turkish offensive.

  • Taliban attack kills 15 cops in Afghanistan

    The Taliban stormed a checkpoint in northern Afghanistan killing at least 15 policemen in the latest attack by the armed group, an official said yesterday.

  • Esper in surprise Saudi Arabia visit

    US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper arrived Monday in Saudi Arabia, state television said. On October 11, the Pentagon said it was deploying new US troops to Saudi Arabia after Riyadh asked for reinforcements following a mid-September drone and missile attack on Saudi oil plants, which Washington blames on Iran.

  • Netanyahu suffers defeat in failing to form Israeli govt

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has suffered a bitter defeat in his bid to hang on as premier by failing to form a new government, but his opponent faced similar difficulties yesterday.

  • End of Syria ‘truce’ looms

    Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday as the Turkish leader threatened to restart Ankara’s military offensive against Kurdish forces in Syria.

  • Saudi Arabia’s new shisha tax sparks fury

    A decision to impose a 100 percent tax on bills at restaurants that serve shisha has ignited criticism on social media in Saudi Arabia, where the water pipes are a popular pastime.

  • Lebanon PM announces reforms to quell protests

    Lebanon’s cabinet approved a raft of economic reforms and agreed on the 2020 budget, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said yesterday.

  • West ‘standing by terrorists’

    President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday lashed out at Western states, accusing them of “standing by terrorists” in failing to support Turkey’s operation against Syrian Kurdish fighters.

  • US pulls troops from key base

    US forces withdrew from their largest base in northern Syria yesterday, a monitor said, as Turkey accused Kurdish forces of killing one of its soldiers in fighting that tested a fragile truce.

  • Indonesia’s Widodo kicks off fresh term

    Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo was sworn in for a second term yesterday, as helicopters flew overhead and troops kept watch in the capital Jakarta -- days after Islamist militants tried to assassinate his top security minister.

  • Israeli guards kill Palestinian ‘assailant’

    Israeli security guards at a West Bank crossing into Israel shot dead a Palestinian assailant who ran at them with a knife on Friday, the Israeli defence ministry said.

  • At least 62 killed in Afghan mosque blast

    At least 62 people are killed by a blast inside an Afghan mosque during Friday prayers, according to officials, a day after the United Nations said violence in the country had reached "unacceptable" levels.

  • Trump: Kurds ‘not angels’

    US President Donald Trump has hailed his surprise decision to withdraw US troops from Syria as “strategically brilliant”, declaring that the Kurds were “not angels”.

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